20 Movies I Like Better Than Anyone Else - Part 2

Midnight Run (1988) – Robert De Niro needs to transport Charles Grodin from Chicago to Los Angeles in 3 days to receive a large bounty. But the FBI, the mob, and a rival bounty hunter will do anything to stop him. Perfect comedic timing and pairing is on display and unlike many great buddy-comedy films, this one is actually emotionally resonant.

Blue Velvet (1986) –Kyle MacLachlan is home from college visiting his sick father and finds a severed ear. He recruits high schooler Laura Dern to help him investigate. The themes of small town decay and lost innocence are handled well, but the script’s obsession with the five senses is one of my favorite touches (that’s intended). Dennis Hopper has never been better as the violent, sadistic, profane psychopath Frank.

Manhunter (1986) – The original Hannibal Lecter movie stars William Petersen as Will Graham, the FBI agent who caught Lecter, on the trail of another serial killer. While Clarice Starling overcoming her personal demons and a sexist environment is ultimately more satisfying, Tom Noonan’s “Tooth Fairy” is far more menacing than the transgender “Buffalo Bill”. And this Lecter’s immaculate holding cell is much more realistic than the dungeon in Silence of the Lambs. The music is occasionally dated, (especially the one over the closing credits), but the use of Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” during the climax, in apparent real-time, is classic.

Local Hero (1983) – Peter Riegert is sent to Scotland by his Houston oil firm to secure off shore drilling rights from the local town. The town is filled with the usual assembly of colorful characters. Short scenes and interactions all serve the story and build character. As the oil CEO, Burt Lancaster and his therapist have some hilarious interactions. You’ll probably be calling a lot of people “craphound” after you see this.

The Right Stuff (1983) – Over 3 hours of interesting stories and episodes involving the origins of the U.S. space program. The space stuff is fascinating, but it’s the comic relief (especially Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer) that pushes this into required viewing. The humor occasionally gets juvenile (Dennis Quaid and Ed Harris singing on the toilet, anyone?), but at least it’s still funny. And the movie follows the 7 original astronauts from their adolescent behavior to maturity.

Ordinary People (1980)- Of course it’s not as great as Raging Bull, but it’s still very good - in particular the scenes between Timothy Hutton and Judd Hirsch. (Any resemblance between those scenes and the ones between Matt Damon and Robin Williams 17 years later is purely coincidental.) Donald Sutherland could apparently play any role at one time in his career including this one - a terrific subdued performance as the desperate patriarch. A sensitive and moving portrayal of a family unraveling after a tragedy.

The Hospital (1971)– A year after George C. Scott delivered a towering, iconic performance as General George Patton, he created a more complex and conflicted character as a chief of staff doctor trying to keep his hospital from falling apart. Paddy Chayefsky wrote the script and does for hospitals what he did for TV 5 years later in “Network”. Why do people keep working and sacrificing for those who will never thank them? As Scott puts it very late in the movie, “Somebody’s got to be responsible.” Damn right. But not just doctors – everyone can make that choice.

Two for the Road (1967) – Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn play a married English couple who vacation in the same place in France every year. The movie moves back and forth in time going from courtship to hardship, and does a remarkable job showing the changes occurring in the 1960s as well. A landmark in film structure and editing from the inventive mind of Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain).

The Loved One (1965) – Maybe the darkest black comedy ever. As Sam Elliott says in The Big Lebowski: “Darker than a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night”. A British man goes to Hollywood to work at his uncle’s funeral parlor. and runs across the expected assortment of crazy characters. The best thing about the movie is the unusual turns and twists it continues to make, never settling or dwelling on very funny situations. Appropriately, it’s in black and white. And Rod Steiger’s Mr. Joyboy deserved to have his own series of films after this.

One, Two, Three (1961) – One of Billy Wilder’s most obscure films is also one of his best. During the Cold War, James Cagney plays a capitalist Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin who tries to prevent his daughter from marrying a communist. That doesn’t exactly sound like a laugh riot, but the pacing and performances make this the funniest film of the 1960s this side of Dr. Strangelove. Cagney always had more energy than everyone else on the screen and his willingness to send up his classic performances in Public Enemy, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Heat is the best bit in the movie.